Service Dog Training: Can You Teach Your Dog to Be a Hero?

Service dogs are used in many capacities from helping individuals gain greater independence in their personal lives through assisting workers in the important roles of their daily jobs. Dogs are used to guide the blind and deaf. Dogs are also used in support therapy for people in nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, day care centers and special needs schools to bring comfort and friendship to the elderly and disabled. Canines are used as guard dogs, rescue dogs, police dogs, and military dogs and in many other services.

Just about any dog of good disposition can become a service dog. However the most common breeds selected are German Shepards and Labrador Retrievers. In some instances shelter dogs can make very good candidates. Whatever the breed, each dog must demonstrate certain abilities such as friendliness, staying calm, sitting on command, behaving well with other animals and ignoring distractions.

At a minimum, service dogs must have four-to-six month of basic dog obedience training and leash training. From there each dog goes through twelve-to-eighteen months of service-specific training for their projected role. Dog training is labor-intensive for both the dog and the trainer. When the training is complete placement is still not guaranteed. The final training phase is with the potential owner and can last from two-to-for months.

Service dogs provide many benefits to their human counterparts. Guide dogs to the blind and deaf assist people with daily living tasks including grooming, mobility, household tasks and emergency alerts. Therapy dogs who visit the disabled and infirmed have been shown bring to relief from boring routines to the residents, add a distraction from pain, illness, depression, and homesickness; and lower blood pressure. Police, Military and Guard Dogs and all other dogs that fall under the category of protection dogs are trained to defend their handlers and territory.

While appreciating the value of service dogs espoused in this article, you may be asking what does the training of service dogs have to do with the dog obedience training of my pet? Your dog has more in common with service dogs than you think… If raised in the proper environment you dog should be trained to in basic dog obedience commands and leash trained.

In many instances families have trained their dogs in basic service: barking at the sight of strangers, alerting parents if babies cry, ringing a bell at the door to go in or out of the home, retrieving beverages from the refrigerator and some heroic acts such as calling 911 in a crisis situation. People can get quite inventive at what they train their dogs to do …

Many of us have trained our dogs to be our heroes. This website gladly welcomes you to share your story. Let us know what your dog had done to save you or at least serve you on a daily basis. Our pets serve us in many ways everyday and we don’t realize it. Take a look at your dog and his/her contribution to you family and share your story with us! If you would like to share the story of your dog's contributions to your family's well being visit http://ruapetlover.blogspot.com/.

If you would like to read more about the role and training of service dogs there are a few good websites: Working Dogs and Working Wog Web. For videos related to traditional dog obedience training programs there are some quality online resources which can be viewed at Service Dog Training: Can You Teach Your Dog to Be a Hero?